For
nearly 40 years, Barney Nagler wrote a newspaper column
devoted mainly to boxing and thoroughbred
racing. The column, “On Second
Thought,” first appeared in 1950 in the
New York Morning Telegraph and was
spiced with jargon of the gym and stable.
When the Telegraph ceased publication
in 1972, Nagler’s column moved to
the Daily Racing Form, continuing until
the writer’s death in October 1990.
An author of numerous books, Nagler’s
titles include James Norris and the
Decline of Boxing, The American Horse,
Brown Bomber: The Pilgrimage of Joe Louis,
Only the Ring Was Square (with Teddy
Brenner), and Shoemaker, America’s
Greatest Jockey.
Before joining the New York Telegraph,
Nagler was a writer for Bill
Stern’s Colgate Sports Newsreel on national
radio. During the 1950s and
1960s, he was a producer of sports
events on the NBC and ABC television
networks, including the 1964 Winter
Olympic Games and Wide World of
Sports.
Nagler served as president of the
New York Boxing Writers Association
twelve times between 1960 and 1980.
From 1984 to 1989, he was president of
the Boxing Writers Association of
America and received the Association’s
James A. Farley Award in 1989.
In 1978, Nagler was honored with
the Walter Haight Award by the National
Turf Writers Association for excellence
in reporting thoroughbred
racing.
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